Posts Tagged ‘HST’

On October 8, 2010, Terence Corcoran wrote a compelling article in the Financial Post about where our electricity rates are headed.

He reports “The government’s regulator, the Ontario Energy Board, has prepared secret forecasts of how much Ontario consumers are going to have to pay for electricity over the next five years. The government won’t allow the report to be released. The next best estimate comes from Aegency Energy Advisors Inc., in a study it did for the Canadian Manufactures and Exporters group. Residential rates are expected to jump by 60% between 2010 and 2015. Industrial customers will be looking at a 55% increase.”

These huge increases, he says, are directly due to the Feed In Tariff that George Smitherman so proudly developed and announced in October of 2009 when he was energy minister of the Provincial rates.

See the announcement of the Feed In Tariff in the video below.

Are you happy with the direction of our rates? Will you be able to afford your current lifestyle if your energy rates are 2-3 times what you are paying now?

Energy Poverty is a term coined in the UK. Middle class people are unable to afford to heat and light their homes due to the skyrocketing costs? We in Ontario seem to be headed down that road.

In 1906, Adam Beck developed the concept of creating affordable electricity in Ontario. And so that’s how it was, Ontario had access to affordable energy that helped us boom in manufacturing and made us the economic engine of Ontario. All that came to a grinding halt in 1988 when our Provincial government decided to make electricity a business. Since then, our rates have doubled and manufacturing in Ontario was decimated. Andy Frame, in the Toronto Star itemizes the long list of expenses that consumers and businesses must pay in order to turn on the lights. Please see his fascinating article. I think we should go back to Adam Beck’s vision. Unfortunately, our politicians are too greedy for that. What do you think?

Christina Blizzard from The Toronto Sun wrote a column about Mr. Les Crisp who was enticed by the province to “Live Better Electrically”. This was the catchy phrase the government advertised with to get people to heat their homes with electricity. Now he is paying a whopping $7,000 a year. He blames Dalton McGuinty for these drastic increases in electricity costs. There is no way to escape this terrible expense because even if you buy your electricity from an alternative supplier, you will get hit by the “Provincial Benefit” line on your gas bill that will inflate your costs. He anticipates that his bill will increase even further due to Dalton McGuinty’s “Green Energy Act” which inflates the cost of electricity to subsidize his Green Energy pet projects. We in Ontario are all in for a big surprise when our electricity costs will soar in the very near future. What are you doing to reduce your dependance on electricity?

Abbas Chagani, Cynthia Wang and Yvan Masse wrote a great article on their Blog about the future of our energy costs in Ontario. They explain in a clear and detailed manner why energy costs are on the rise and how our Provincial Government made this happen even while electricity in general is going down. Please see their article as it is a real eye opener. For most homeowners who are struggling to get by, these increases will be quite painful. The only way to save ourselves from this is to upgrade our appliances to high-efficiency. The greatest consumers of energy in our homes are our heating and air conditioning systems. Right now, the province is still offering rebates to help consumers upgrade their heating and air conditioning equipment. If homeowners don’t act soon, they might find themselves choosing between heating their homes and feeding their families in the not to distant future. This energy poverty problem is already rampant in London and Germany.

Tyler Hamilton wrote an interesting article in The Toronto Star yesterday about the future of natural gas. He claims that the future of natural gas as a main staple of energy is on the decline. I wonder if this is true. Please see his article by clicking here. Natural gas is relatively clean, efficient and affordable. Although geothermal is the least expensive option for home heating in the long run, upfront costs will continue to make geothermal unattainable for the vast majority of citizens who are struggling to survive financially. With our provincial government piling upon us tax after tax (HST) and drastically raising the cost of electricity, the financial viability is further being compromised. Remember, geothermal relies totally on electricity. When our electricity rates reach 25 cents/kwh (and they will very soon due to the FIT Tariff imposed by the province), it will be very difficult to justify geothermal heat because it will not offer much savings. Natural gas will always be a fuel of choice for the average homeowner. Please see Tyler’s article at The Toronto Star website or on this site by clicking on his article in the pages section to the right of this blog.

Today, Lorrie Goldstien published an excellent article in The Toronto Sun about our electricity rates going through the roof. Although our Premier McGuinty tells us this is to fight climate change, it has nothing to do do with that. It is all about fat profits for Hydro One and to fill the Provincial coffers with mounds of cash, on the backs of us, the hardworking class. Lorrie warns that just like in the UK, people will start living cold and in the dark because they simply will not be able to afford the electricity to heat and light their homes.